The Daily Beat: 6 March
As protests continue and demands remain the same – new elections and the release of all those illegally detained – Tbilisi City Court Judge Davit Mgeliashvili remanded eight individuals in custody. The defendants are being tried together, although the defense contends there is no evidence they even know each other. For more updates on the Georgian resistance, follow our live blog.
Lithuania’s ambassador to Georgia, Darius Vitkauskas, today attended the hearing of journalist Mzia Amaghlobeli at Batumi City Court and later visited the Batumelebi/Netgazeti office. In a statement on social media, Vitkauskas expressed his support, calling Amaghlobeli “a symbol of courage and devotion of all those unjustly detained.”
TV Imedi’s report normalized the firing of civil servants for participating in protests. Anna Komladze, an employee of the Tbilisi City Hall, was notified on March 5 that she would be dismissed due to “reorganization” as of March 15. TV Imedi,a ruling party’s mouthpiece, framed the news, saying Komladze, a “supporter of the radical opposition and an active participant in protest rallies, has been fired.” Some 400 civil servants said the Georgian Dream fired them due to their political stance as street protests continued.
Georgian Dream PM Irakli Kobakhidze has repeated accusations against the International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED), stating that it operates on behalf of forces that do not “have good intentions toward Georgia.” The latest bout of political vitriol comes a day after the Prosecutor’s Office impounded the full documentation of ISFED’s Parallel Vote Tabulation (PVT) for the disputed October 26 parliamentary elections, reportedly as a part of an ongoing investigation into “allegations of election fraud.”
For years, two call centers in the heart of Tbilisi scammed people around the world and stole millions of dollars, according to a new three-month journalistic investigation by OCCRP and its Georgian media partners. The call centers in Tbilisi were allegedly part of a larger network of “scam empires” operating in Israel, Eastern Europe, and Georgia.
On March 4-5, the 63rd round of the Geneva International Discussions (GID) – a multilateral format to address security and humanitarian consequences of the 2008 Russia-Georgia war – was held in Geneva. As usual, the Georgian Dream Foreign Ministry reported that during the discussions, the Georgian delegation emphasized the necessity of full implementation of the 2008 six-point ceasefire agreement by Russia and the return of internally displaced persons (IDPs) and refugees to their homes.